North Korean focused on clash at sea
North Korea has threatened to retaliate with its military if any of its ships are stopped and searched for banned weapons. Deadly naval skirmishes occurred in 1999 and 2002 off disputed shores along Korea’s western coast.
But despite all of its bluster, some experts say Pyongyang is playing a calculated game and is aware of the danger to the survival of its own leadership if it goes too far and provokes a full-on response from the much-stronger militaries that surround it.
“The North won’t start a game that it knows it will lose,” said Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea expert at Seoul’s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.
He and other experts said North Korea is using the nuclear test to get the international community’s attention and to milk for its domestic propaganda value, instilling its populace with pride in their country’s military might.
North Korea has said it does not fear sanctions, which are being mulled by the U.N. Security Council, and is so isolated already that it is used to fending for itself, although the cost has been deep poverty.